Pretty much from the start, emails and comments have appeared to the tune of “well this is all well and good but Dr. Strange isn’t the Sorcerer Supreme any more so everything you’re doing is meaningless.” And, as amusing as it is that people’s chief reason for dubbing this “meaningless” is that it does not necessarily follow current canon rather than the more pressing issue of it being unlikely that I will get paid moneys to write the comic any time soon, it’s still wrong. I mean, people, come on. You know I’m a continuity dork by now. I only mock Geoff Johns because he is so very like me in that he likes everything to fit when it’s possible to make things fit. And in this case the fix is really quite easy.

Pretty much from the first one of these things, I have been trying to gradually instill the idea that the chief plot point of the series is “majorly bad shit is coming down the pike.” And when I say bad shit, I mean seriously baaaaaaad shit, man. Shit that is bad enough that it scares Stephen Strange, who is very pointedly somebody who doesn’t get scared and doesn’t panic about much of anything.

(Additionally: I can sum up the reason for said bad shit coming down the pike in exactly three words.)

And when Strange saw what was coming, he knew what he had to do. He needs to work unfettered, without the constraints and day-to-day issues of the mortal world distracting him, but more importantly even than that, he needs to make sure said bad shit isn’t coming at him. The nice thing about being the Sorcerer Supreme is that you’re always the Sorcerer Supreme, until you’re not – but most people don’t understand that the job is attained in such a holistic manner. They think it’s a title of rank, or a privilege. They think it’s about having the Eye of Agamotto, the Cloak of Levitation and all the other trappings. (Which are nice, sure, but they don’t make you the Sorcerer Supreme.)

And he’s been preparing this for a long time, making sure that it was believable to any superhero who might think about investigating. (“Not being able” to use his magic to do simple things like save the New Avengers from a lousy crashing plane, for example.) He started downplaying his abilities more and more, making it seem more and more difficult – because the New Avengers, decent and brave as they might be, would be cannon fodder in what was coming, and he needed to make sure when it did in fact arrive that they were nowhere near the scene of the real fight.

And then he crowned all of this with his masterstroke – choosing a “new” Sorcerer Supreme.

Which actually worked something like this:

…and that’s it for this round. Join us next April, when I’ll delve into, I dunno, Brother Power: The Geek or something.

Why you’re not professionally writing something will forever be a mystery to me. You bring the mad, beautiful ideas and you put a month’s work of effort and imagination into each day of months like this.

I don’t know what it’ll take to actually get you your own work, but let us know if there’s anything we can do to expedite the process. Because it’s long past due.

I’m very sad to see this go. Your Legion series was really interesting even though I’d barely heard of the Legion before I read your posts. Then you did Strange, which was even better because I’d heard of Strange and liked the character, though I haven’t read all that many of the books. Even Bendis’ butching of the character did little (some, but little) to make me dislike the character. Then your posts revitilaized what I liked so much about the character, exploring the mystical elements of the MU, strange creatures, exotic locations, a man who uses knowledge instead of just a fist. In fact these posts propted me to buy one of the Doctor Strange Masterworks (well you and the fact it was half off). So, I’m hoping, like with the Legion, that this won’t be the very last of the “I Should Write Doctor Strange” posts. You made it to 50 with Legion, lets see you hit 60 with Strange.

But, question, is the actual conversation (aside from the Purple MGK-Strange bubbles) legit? I stopped following New Avengers because I didn’t like continually being hit with a metaphorical bat of frozen stupid.

If you got your run, I would purchase every last issue and the trades besides. I say this having only ever bought one trade for myself and one for a friend. This is exactly the kind of storytelling I’ve been looking for.

But, question, is the actual conversation (aside from the Purple MGK-Strange bubbles) legit? I stopped following New Avengers because I didn’t like continually being hit with a metaphorical bat of frozen stupid.”

Yeah, it’s real. New Avengers #51. And I like New Avengers!

P.S. MGK, have you seen Thor #601? Now THAT is some bad Doom dialogue worthy of photoshopping!

BringTheNoise: Personally I didn’t feel it was that bad. Though the line about Doom looking up some kind of food on Wikipeida was beyond retared. Doom has cooks and books, shit, I would have been happier if he said he checked Google, but fucking Wikipedia?

DistantFred: I remember hearing months ago that the next major Marvel event involved Doom. So, I’m assuming that this is all some build up to that. Read the The Cabal one shot that came out yestersday for a teaser. I thought it was quite good.

MGK, I think you missed the much more relevant rebuttal to the “It contradicts canon!” complaint:

“Current Marvel canon re: Dr Strange is a sack of burning crap.”

Which is to say, I doubt many fans would object to the last couple years of Strange appearances getting whammed with the retcon hammer. 😉

( also, sadly, I would not call Johns a continuity fan, not anymore. Busiek, yes. But Johns? Only cares about continuity, when he cares about it. The rest of the time, he is willing to rewrite the appearance, personality, backstory, and genetic material. . . )

“Personally I didn’t feel it was that bad. Though the line about Doom looking up some kind of food on Wikipeida was beyond retared. Doom has cooks and books, shit, I would have been happier if he said he checked Google, but fucking Wikipedia?”

Well, that was the line that pissed me off. Winkles aren’t fucking rare. He lives in Europe, FFS! Does Latveria have a coast? He can probably get some local ones! AND DOOM ONLY CONSULTS PONEYPEDIA!

An impressive series with a lot of great ideas on the ball. I’d buy it religiously and preach to the faithful. You did leave out Rintrah though, which is a shame. The big green minotaur was my favorite Strange sidekick after Wong, back in the days when the good Doctor shared a book with Cloak & Dagger.

Oh, and could you find some way to slip your writing into the pages of any Bendis-produced swill that’s currently out there that’d be awesome. Those pages were like a breath of cool, crisp spring air after being lead through a slaughterhouse.

Okay, that’s it, last freaking straw man. Been reading this all stinking month and each idea is more awesome than the one that came before it. An entire month of plot-tease, each of which is solid and readible and utterly frustrating for *not existing.*

Show of hands here, people! Who here is an artist and who here would illustrate this man’s stories? Anything! A little 15-20 page self-contained webcomic? It’s a start! It would be something to show prospective employers at Marvel or DC or whatever! Something for MGK to plop on their desk and go, “See this? I wrote this? See these people going crazy excited over it? I can do this for your comics.”

Holy poop on a stick, I’ve seen more good ideas here in the last thirty days than I’ve seen at Marvel proper in the last three years. I’d almost be tempted to say you’d be wasted on Marvel/DC… I’m not sure if they deserve you.

Over in the Limbo dimension who got this guy Belasco trying to bring back these horrific creatures that are his masters. Why is it stopping this particular magic user falls to the X-men and not the Sorcerer Supreme.

That was because of Magik and her relationship to the X-men. She was one of Belasco’s enemies, and most likely Strange had bigger matters to attend too. Like some tacos.

Anyways, some good ideas here, with the aforementioned Taco Stand, the Path of Winter, and D showing some balls. I enjoyed reading what you would do with magic in the Marvel universe if you got the chance.

Never read Doctor Strange, but I love how these articles have made the character and potential storylines easy to follow. That should be a strong consideration for Marvel hiring MGK right there: stories that are interesting and engaging to new readers.

But what is up with that kid? Is he sucking on a sour candy or something? Or does he just hate the way Strange smells?

Zenrage: Nothing against you, but nothing has ever made me care about the FF. As far as I’m concerned Doom would make for a better Avengers villian then he does the Four. And it’s not like you could do any worse after Millar. In fact I’d love for anyone to get me excited about them.

Lister, I don’t think I’m going too far here to call early FF the best of Silver Age Marvel. Admittedly, the Ditkoverses in Doctor Strange were pretty awesome. I also think the Waid/Weiringo run was better than any recent Morrison ongoing (A-SS was a maxi-series, Seven Soldiers is hard to classify, etc.). Full disclosure: the Fantastic Four are probably my favorite super-team, both for the relation to the alchemical elements and because super-battle is not their primary motivation.

How is it that just anybody can create a blog and get as popular as this? Its not like youve said anything extremely impressive –more like youve painted a fairly picture above an issue that you know nothing about! I dont want to sound mean, right here. But do you actually think that you can get away with adding some pretty pictures and not actually say something?

Dude unlike johns you dont revel on slaughtering 90’s characters just because you dont fucking assed to read about how to write them. still you’re right when the mainstream
sucks make your own cannon (for example :morrison ‘s x-men run never happened except for the population boom ,legalization of xavier’s school,mutant culture & mutant town,u know because i admit the concepts were great but if the execution fails it goes down the toilet)
would you still use DR voodoo in your stories i still think he would be a cool partner for strange

[…] Where MGK really excels in his knowledge of the lore behind it all. Whereas Diaz took and remade characters, creating an entirely new universe for them, MGK makes his narratives fit in Marvel continuity and acknowledges the world he’s writing in even though he has no obligation to do so. When he writes about Dracula he mentions Blade, and when writing about the death of Cytorrak [picture shown above] he makes sure to hint that there’s a chance not all is well with the Juggernaut. He even justifies his entire act of writing these reasons by explaining how it all continues to work even when Doctor Strange was no longer Sorcerer Supreme. […]

Speechless. Like most people here I hate the way Doc has been treated lately by Marvel (the worst scene: not being able to stop the plane crash). But this theory of yours, these bubbles added to the comic… Wow. Just wow. It changes the story completely -for good. The dialogue between Strange and Wiccan -which was not bad at all, for starters- now it’s much richer, a whole subplot mending the holes on so many comics… Bravo for you, sir!